Reidbest1089

Mechanisms that allow plants to survive and reproduce after herbivory are considered to play a key role in plant evolution. In this study, we evaluated how tolerance varies in species with different historic exposure to herbivores considering ontogeny. We exposed the range-restricted species Medicago citrina and its closely related and widespread species M. arborea to one and two herbivory simulations (80 % aerial biomass loss). Physiological and growth parameters related to tolerance capacity were assessed to evaluate constitutive values (without herbivory) and induced tolerance after damage. Constitutive traits were not always related to greater tolerance, and each species compensated for herbivory through different traits. Herbivory damage only led to mortality in M. citrina; adults exhibited root biomass loss and increased oxidative stress after damage, but also compensated aerial biomass. Despite seedlings showed a lower death percentage than adults after herbivory in M. citrina, they showed less capacity to recover control values than adults. Moderate tolerance to M. arborea herbivory and low tolerance to M. citrina is found. Thus, although the constitutive characteristics are maintained in the lineage, the tolerance of plants decreases in M. citrina. That represents how plants respond to the lack of pressure from herbivores in their habitat.Lodging is one of the causes of maize (Zea mays L.) production losses worldwide and, at least, the resistance to stalk lodging has been positively correlated with stalk strength. this website In order to elucidate the putative relationship between cell wall, stalk strength and lodging resistance, twelve maize inbreds varying in rind penetration strength and lodging resistance were characterized for cell wall composition and structure. Stepwise multiple regression indicates that H lignin subunits confer a greater rind penetration strength. Besides, the predictive model for lodging showed that a high ferulic acid content increases the resistance to lodging, whereas those of diferulates decrease it. These outcomes highlight that the strength and lodging susceptibility of maize stems may be conditioned by structural features of cell wall rather than by the net amount of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. The results presented here provide biotechnological targets in breeding programs aimed at improving lodging in maize.Auxin alone or supplemented with cytokinins and strigolactones were long considered as the main player(s) in the control of apical dominance (AD) and correlative inhibition of the lateral bud outgrowth, the processes that shape the plant phenotype. However, past decade data indicate a more sophisticated pathways of AD regulation, with the involvement of mobile carbohydrates which perform both signal and trophic functions. Here we provide a critical comprehensive overview of the current status of the AD problem. This includes insight into intimate mechanisms regulating directed auxin transport in axillary buds with participation of phytohormones and sugars. Also roles of auxin, cytokinin and sugars in the dormancy or sustained growth of the lateral meristems were assigned. This review not only provides the latest data on implicated phytohormone crosstalk and its relationship with the signaling of sugars and abscisic acid, new AD players, but also focuses on the emerging biochemical mechanisms, at first positive feedback loops involving both sugars and hormones, that ensure the sustained bud growth. Data show that sugars act in concert with cytokinins but antagonistically to strigolactone signaling. A complex bud growth regulating network is demonstrated and unresolved issues regarding the hormone-carbohydrate regulation of AD are highlighted.Glume hairiness or pubescence that occurs in hexaploid common wheat and its relatives at different ploidy levels is a distinct morphological marker. Current knowledge about the genetic control of wheat glume hairiness is based on study of Hg1 (formerly Hg) on chromosome 1AS. Here, we report characterization of a new locus for hairy glume Hg2 in synthetic hexaploid wheat line CIGM86.944. Hg2 was inherited a dominant allele. Bulked segregant analysis and RNA-sequencing (BSR-Seq) was performed on an F23 population from cross CIGM86.944 × Shannong 29 (glabrous glume), which localized Hg2 in a 2.02 cM genetic interval corresponding to ∼1.08 Mb (754,001,564-755,082,433 Mb) on chromosome 2BL in the Chinese Spring reference genome. Gene annotation and expression identified TraesCS2B02 G562300.1 encoding diacylglycerol kinase 5 protein and TraesCS2B02 G561400.1 encoding a wound-responsive family protein as possible candidate genes regulating development of glume hairiness. The identification of Hg2 provides new insights into the genetic control of glume hairiness in wheat.Chloroplasts are closely associated with the growth and development of higher plants. Accumulating evidence has revealed that the multiple organellar RNA editing factors (MORF) family of proteins influences plastidic and mitochondrial development through post-transcriptional regulation. However, the role of MORFs in regulating the development of chloroplasts in rice is still unclear. The OsMORF9 gene belongs to a small family of 7 genes in rice and is highly expressed in young leaves. We used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to mutate OsMORF9. The resulting knockout lines osmorf9-1 and osmorf9-2 exhibited an albino seedling lethal phenotype. Besides, the expression of many plastid-encoded genes involved in photosynthesis, the biogenesis of plastidic ribosomes and the editing and splicing of specific plastidic RNA molecules were severely affected in these two OsMORF9 mutants. Furthermore, yeast two-hybrid analysis revealed that OsMORF9 could interact with OsSLA4 and DUA1 which are members of the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) family of proteins. Analysis of subcellular localization of OsMORF9 also suggested that it might function in chloroplasts. The findings from the present study demonstrated the critical role of OsMORF9 in the biogenesis of chloroplast ribosomes, chloroplast development and seedling survival. This therefore provides new insights on the function of MORF proteins in rice.Developing strategies to improve nitrogen (N) use efficiency (NUE) in plants is a challenge to reduce environmental problems linked to over-fertilization. The nitric oxide synthase (NOS) enzyme from the cyanobacteria Synechococcus PCC 7335 (SyNOS) has been recently identified and characterized. SyNOS catalyzes the conversion of arginine to citrulline and nitric oxide (NO), and then approximately 75 % of the produced NO is rapidly oxidized to nitrate by an unusual globin domain in the N-terminus of the enzyme. In this study, we assessed whether SyNOS expression in plants affects N metabolism, NUE and yield. Our results showed that SyNOS-expressing transgenic Arabidopsis plants have greater primary shoot length and shoot branching when grown under N-deficient conditions and higher seed production both under N-sufficient and N-deficient conditions. Moreover, transgenic plants showed significantly increased NUE in both N conditions. Although the uptake of N was not modified in the SyNOS lines, they showed an increase in the assimilation/remobilization of N under conditions of low N availability. In addition, SyNOS lines have greater N-deficiency tolerance compared to control plants. Our results support that SyNOS expression generates a positive effect on N metabolism and seed production in Arabidopsis, and it might be envisaged as a strategy to improve productivity in crops under adverse N environments.

Accurate measures of violence are difficult to obtain from self-reported data because of stigmatization and social undesirability of the topic. Most methods that attempt to reduce such biases require literacy and either remove the benefits of interviewer guidance or do not give individual-level results. We tested a low-tech nonverbal response card that avoids revealing interviewees' responses to interviewers while retaining interviewer support among adolescents in communities with very low educational attainment.

As part of a broader health questionnaire, we asked a sample of 1,644 adolescents, aged 12-20years, in northwestern Burkina Faso about their experiences of physical and sexual violence. We randomized participants to either a conventional verbal response arm or a nonverbal response card arm where respondents' answers were unspoken and not displayed to interviewers. We first evaluated response validity and reliability in each arm, then compared prevalence rates across arms and evaluated whether any differences varied by respondent characteristics using regression models.

The level of internal reliability of responses among nonverbal respondents was similar to or greater than that of verbal respondents. Nonverbal respondents reported similar patterns of physical assault and sexual debut as verbal respondents but significantly higher levels of sexual assault and forced sex. These differences were broadly similar across sample subgroups defined by age, gender, proneness to social desirability, and mental health.

Nonverbal response cards offer a practical and beneficial method for reducing underreporting of stigmatized and traumatic experiences while maintaining data quality in low-literacy populations.

Nonverbal response cards offer a practical and beneficial method for reducing underreporting of stigmatized and traumatic experiences while maintaining data quality in low-literacy populations.Deuterium metabolic spectroscopy (DMS) and imaging (DMI) have recently been described as simple and robust MR-based methods to map metabolism with high temporal and/or spatial resolution. The metabolic fate of a wide range of suitable deuterated substrates, including glucose and acetate, can be monitored with deuterium MR methods in which the favorable MR characteristics of deuterium prevent many of the complications that hamper other techniques. The short T1 relaxation times lead to good MR sensitivity, while the low natural abundance prevents the need for water or lipid suppression. The sparsity of the deuterium spectra in combination with the low resonance frequency provides relative immunity to magnetic field inhomogeneity. Taken together, these features combine into a highly robust metabolic imaging method that has strong potential to become a dominant MR research tool and a viable clinical imaging modality. This perspective reviews the history of deuterium as a metabolic tracer, the use of NMR as a detection method for deuterium in vitro and in vivo and the recent development of DMS and DMI. Following a review of the NMR characteristics and the biological effects of deuterium, the promising future of DMI is outlined.

There are multiple known associations between the ABO and RhD blood groups and disease. No systematic population-based studies elucidating associations between a large number of disease categories and blood group have been conducted.

Using SCANDAT3-S, a comprehensive nationwide blood donation-transfusion database, we modeled outcomes for 1217 disease categories including 70 million person-years of follow-up, accruing from 5.1 million individuals.

We discovered 49 and 1 associations between a disease and ABO and RhD blood groups, respectively, after adjustment for multiple testing. We identified new associations such as a decreased risk of kidney stones and blood group B as compared to blood group O. We also expanded previous knowledge on other associations such as pregnancy-induced hypertension and blood groups A and AB as compared to blood group O and RhD positive as compared to negative.

Our findings generate strong further support for previously known associations, but also indicate new interesting relations.